By Robbie LaFleur 

Frida Hansen (1855-1931) and Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970), two of the most important Norwegian tapestry weavers of the 20th century, wove monumental tapestries with very different styles and aesthetics. They both used liberal amounts of the vibrant blue loved by countless Norwegian weavers over time, potte-blå, or “pot blue.”

Most dyes require a mordant in the dyeing process, an ingredient that creates a bond between the color and the fiber. In the case of indigo, urine works well. Although both artists warrant much longer descriptions of their lives and works, this article will focus on interesting anecdotes about their use of blue dye and urine—from camels and from men.

Frida Hansen was most active from the late 1890s through the 1920s and her tapestries reflected the Art Nouveau style of her era. Her figures, almost exclusively of women, were elegant. She was one of the first artist weavers, responsible for both the design and weaving of her tapestries (though she had help at the loom). Her images were filled with nature, evoking flowers from the gardens of her youth. In addition to her artistic talent, Hansen was also known for reinvigorating historical Norwegian tapestry weaving at the end of the 19th century, for her research into traditional plant dyes, and for her entrepreneurship as the head of a weaving studio of around 20 weavers. 

Many of Frida Hansen’s tapestries include liberal amounts and numerous shades of indigo blue. In Sørover [Southward, 1903], ten maidens ride swans on blue fan-shaped waves. The indigo shades set off the sinuous maidens in complementary colors. Without the variety of blue, the massive tapestry (10’ x 11’) would be much less striking. 

Frida Hansen also developed and patented a unique form of wool transparent tapestry, with areas of open warp contrasting with fully-woven sections of pattern. Blue was a favorite color for her warp; more than half of her designs featured indigo-dyed warp. Blue was also prominent in the rugs and upholstery fabrics woven in her studio.

Frida Hansen dyed large quantities of wool for her own tapestries and those woven in her workshop, and her students did too. Around 1916 Ragna Bachke, a student of Frida Hansen’s, ran into problems obtaining her mordant for indigo. Bachke was weaving three rugs designed by Hansen and she needed several liters of potte-blå. Frida Hansen specified that only natural dyes be used, and Bachke was importing camel urine from Morocco for her indigo mordant. (Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the bottles and labels?) However, submarine warfare interrupted shipping, and Bachke visited Frida Hansen to express her concerns. Hansen consoled her immediately, saying, “Remember, dear lady, there are strong men at Jæderen too.” (1)

It is interesting that camel urine was used, that WWI interrupted its use, and that in its absence, Frida Hansen suggested that men’s urine, in particular, was still available. Hmmm…only men?

Hannah Ryggen’s career started around the time of Frida Hansen’s death in 1931. She was born in Sweden and married Hans Ryggen, a Norwegian artist. They lived on a small farm without electricity near Trondheim, Norway, yet her visually powerful tapestries commented on international issues. For example, she skewered Hitler and Nazis while Norway was occupied and continued her social critiques for decades. Her images were not always political. We are Living on a Star, woven to celebrate her marriage, is filled with symbols of love, but the tapestry became political. It was hanging in a government building and damaged during the terrorist attack of Hans Breivik on July 11, 2011. When the tapestry was repaired, it was done imperfectly, intentionally, to show the tear in the fabric of society, and the coming together in its wake.  

Her use of bold color and design brings to mind the decorative aspects of folk art, yet the images wouldn’t be called pretty. Ryggen said that she did not consider her works as textiles, but representations of people’s lives and struggles. She mostly used wool spun by her from her own sheep and dyed it with natural materials. Ryggen also used men’s urine in dyeing her vibrant blue. Many overviews of her work note that Ryggen kept a bucket for pee and asked male guests to her farm to contribute.

A contemporary artist, Veslemøy Lilleengen, whose own grandfather had contributed to Hannah Ryggen’s famous jar of pee, made it a personal quest to dispute the common belief that men’s urine makes the best blue. 

She wrote, “The content of urine affects the color. What you have eaten and what you have drunk, health and age are examples of what gives different shades of blue. After working with the color method for a few years, I have been confronted time and again with a certain myth: only men can contribute urine to make pot blue. It comes from different quarters, both experts on color, experts at Hannah Ryggen and museums. It may seem that people believe men have magical urine.” (2)

To dispel this mistaken belief, Lilleengen collected urine from other women artists and used it to make a blue shade unique to each person, a sort of genetic fingerprint in a dyepot. She dyed a t-shirt in the unique dye for each artist and stamped the artist’s name on the front. The 55 shirts were assembled as an art work, Norsk Bauta [Norwegian Monument], and displayed at the 2021 Høstutstillingen, a prestigious annual contemporary art exhibition in Oslo. The indigo t-shirt project is a part of Lilleengen’s larger focus on the underrepresentation of women in art and museum collections. (3)

Both Frida Hansen and Hannah Ryggen would have enjoyed Veslemøy Lilleengen’s research to break the myth of men’s urine as best. But however those artists obtained their potte-blått, the resulting tapestries with a myriad of blue shades are a cause for celebration and admiration.

1. Letter from Christian Mohr to Anniken Thue, Oslo, October 27, 1991, Anniken Thue’s Frida Hansen archive, Stavanger Art Museum.
2. Lilleengen, Veslemøy. “Norsk Bauta.” Website: https://www.veslemoylilleengen.com/work/norsk-bauta.
3. LaFleur, Robbie. “To the Point, with Textiles.” Vesterheim, Vol. 19, No. 2 2021.

More reading on Frida Hansen:

LaFleur, Robbie. “Frida Hansen’s Sørover.” Norwegian Textile Letter, February 2022.

LaFleur, Robbie. “Frida Hansen: A Brief Biography.”  Norwegian Textile Letter, February 2022.

Simonæs, Anne Sommerin. “Frida Hansen: A Leading Star in European Textile Art.” Nasjonalmuseet website, Oslo. https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/stories/explore-the-collection/frida-hansen/

Ueland, Hanne Beate, editor. Frida Hansen, Art Nouveau in Full Bloom. Stavanger Art Museum, 2015. 

More reading on Hannah Ryggen:

“Hannah Ryggen.” Webpage from the Nordenfjelske Kunstindustrimuseum. This Norwegian museum has the largest collection of Hannah Ryggen’s tapestries.

“Hannah Ryggen, 1894-1970,” AbsoluteTapestry website. https://www.absolutetapestry.com/artist/hannah-ryggen/

Paasche, Marit. Hannah Ryggen: Threads of Defiance. London: Thames & Hudson, 2019.

A web search of Hannah Ryggen’s name will turn up many articles that include photos of her amazing tapestries.

This article originally appeared in Tapestry Topics from the American Tapestry Alliance, Spring 2025, Vol. 51 Issue 2.

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